Battlefield: Hardline Impressions

During E3 EA and Visceral games officially announced after many leaks, Battlefield Hardline. During the announcement they released the Beta as well to open access for everyone on PC, PS4 and, Xbox One who signed up and I believe are still sending out invites if slowly and keys are being given out as well VIA community sites. So What’s different?

Battlefield Hardline features a Cops Vs. Robbers setting inside generally smaller maps from what we have seen and heard so far. So far the only map available is High tension featuring a large crane used in the levolution by breaking the wires holding it in place (get it… high tension wires?). The map works well in the two game modes we have and seems very balanced in Blood Money and Heist. I’ve seen both sides win plenty of times none really harder than the other. The servers all seem to be 32 slots and it seems appropriate for this map and frankly I wouldn’t be sad with it staying at 32 it just feels “right”.

The game plays great, I’d wager to say that it plays better than Battlefield 4 for me in it’s current state. The hit markers seem correct. I’m not getting as many trades. My PC isn’t being taxed in resources. I’m also sure they will optimize it more closer to release as this is only a beta after all and they are pushing out a few patches a week so far. Overall though it is VERY similar to Battlefield 4, after all is is the next Battlefield title on the same engine I don’t think many people should be too surprised by this.

New Game modes

Blood Money: A 5,000,000 cash grab! Be it a cop to recover for evidence or a criminal to… spend on things! Both teams have a Counter-Attack Truck with heavy armor and weapons to plow through the enemy team, a mobile spawn truck as well as a light gunned helicopter a transport chopper and of course a slew of motorcycles, sedans and, muscle cars (changing looks to be cars or police cruisers based on faction). All the money is in the center of the map and the two sides will clash until one is able to sneak away with up to 500,000 cash each player in intervals of 100,000 cash but how long can you stay in the most heated part of the map to get more cash? After you grab your money you go back to your teams respective vault and stick it in the back… of an open truck so make sure it’s defended! Once it’s in your “Vault” it is NOT safe by any means. The other team can take every penny from you at any second the same way they would get it from the cash pile in the mid point.

Heist: Easy job. Take out the escorts and blow the back of the trucks and get out with the loot! Cops are there right away though prepare for a gunfight and a tedious trek to both dropoff points. Less vehicles this time, no choppers but one contested one on a roof. No Counter-Attack truck but you still have an armored SUV with a Mini-gun to help a bit but your not well defended in that thing your driver better be good. Pretty simple game mode just capturing two objectives as the criminals and defending two spots as the cops. It does prove it doesn’t have to be big and complicated to be fun.

So that’s where I’m a bit torn. Currently the price of pre-ordering Battlefield Hardline is $59.99 USD and a deluxe edition for $69.99 USD. So it’s not cheap but it seems so far there is no Battlefield: Hardline Premium so you wont be spending $120+ USD on a game you haven’t fully experienced. Now so far I’m going to say MAYBE on this. I want to still see another game mode and hopefully another map as well. Realistically we havent seen enough even through trailers for me to make a $59.99 USD decision on pre-ordering the game yet but it’s definitely up there on the games I’m looking forward to.